D.C.-Based Global Incubator 1776 Closes Seed Fund

September 1, 2015

11:00 am

0 Shares

This morning, the Washington, D.C.-based global startup incubator 1776 announced the closing of a $12.5 million Seed Fund aimed at making investments in pre-Series A startups disrupting highly-regulated industries.

“Technology is permeating the global economy and unmooring it from its industrial era roots, creating massive opportunities for innovation. This is especially true in complex, regulated industries that are operating the same way they did decades or even centuries ago,” said 1776 cofounder Evan Burfield, in a statement regarding the 1776 Seed Fund. “Startups in these markets, with the right combination of capital, market sophistication, and insider relationships, can scale in ways never before imaginable.”

A top incubator that’s played an influential part in accelerating D.C.’s local startup ecosystem, 1776 is globally renowned for its Challenge Cup competition – a global competition aimed at finding startups from around the world tackling major issues in education, health, energy, transportation, and city planning. The new 1776 Seed Fund aims to fund startups in these same industries.

The 1776 Seed Fund was first announced last year; since then, 1776 has backed 20 companies to-date, investing alongside top funds and investors including 500 Startups, Silicon Valley Angels, Govtech Fund, Ron Conway, Marc Benioff, and Jason Calacanis. The Seed Fund’s first investment was in RideScout, a company whose mobile platform aggregates and compares public, private, and social ground transportation per time and cost to consumers; the company was acquired by car2go in fall of last year.

Did you like this article?

Sorry about that. Try these articles instead!

Ronald Barba was the previous managing editor of Tech.Co. His primary story interests include industry trends, consumer-facing apps/products, the startup lifestyle, business ethics, diversity in tech, and what-is-this-bullsh*t things.
Aside from writing about startups and entrepreneurship, Ronald is interested in 'Doctor Who', Murakami, 'The Mindy Project', and fried chicken. He is currently based in New York because he mistakenly studied philosophy in college and is now a "writer". Tweet @RonaldPBarba.